Gift of Giving

Lately, my sister and I have been going to school to study for our finals. Since our study sessions go into the wee hours of the night, we've made it a habit to drop by our local Starbucks for our much needed drug of choice: caffeine.

During this holiday season, our local Starbucks decided to support The Salvation Army's Angel Tree Christmas Charity. Basically, children, who are in need, get to fill out Christmas wish lists. Then, anyone can "adopt" the children's lists and be a secret Santa.

My sister and I decided to pick up two Christmas wish lists. I got a 12 year old girl named Sequoia who wanted a Hannah Montana doll and a jewelry making kit. My sister got a 1 year old boy named Cody who needed some clothes and shoes.

It felt really good to do a kind act and know that it made a little kid really happy. And our Starbucks gave us free drinks just for "be[ing] an angel." =P

Merry Christmas Sequoia and Cody!

Kimchi Sujebi ( I wish I had a cuter title) =/

My recipe for Spicy Kimchi Sujebi.

Sujebi is a Korean dish (obviously) that uses pulled strips of dough. It's pretty hard to do from scratch because you want all the strips to be of equal size, thin enough so that it can cook relatively quickly, and it just takes a while to knead the dough, and etcetera etcetera. So rather than slaving away for hours in the kitchen I decided to go to the grocery store for premade sujebi strips. It is, afterall, 2010. Oddly enough, the noodles are placed with the fake crab. Well, maybe that's just MY korean store I go to.

AND, this post is picture-less because my mom came home and I started to get nervous because my dish wasn't done and hence, I forgot to take pictures.

In any case, without further ado, here is the ingredient list and recipe!

Serves 5

Ingredients
9 cups water
15 anchovies, beheaded and degutted (sounds horrible! And it felt worse beheading and degutting them T.T)
1 cup kimchi
5 tbsp kimchi juice
2 potatoes, cubed
1/2 onion, cubed
2 tbsp garlic, minced
3 tbsp red pepper paste
salt to taste
1 package of sujebi noodles
5 green onions, chopped

Directions:
1. In a pot, bring to a boil the water, anchovies, kimchi, kimchi juice, potatoes, onion, and garlic. Let it boil at medium high heat for 10 minutes.
2. Reduce temperature to low, and let it simmer for 10 more minutes.
3. Pull out all the anchovies. Add red pepper paste and salt to taste.
4. Add the sujebi noodles. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked through.
5. Add the green onions. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes.
6. Serve and enjoy!

=)

Mozza Balls

I just gave a mock dissertation yesterday and so today was one of those days where I just wanted to not go to school and rest, which is exactly what I did. Comfort foods are perfect for lazy days, such as today, so I created my variation on cheese sticks. Mozzarella isn't my all time favorite of cheeses, but I don't know what other cheese you would use for cheese sticks. =/

I suppose you could buy super organic mozzarella cheese that comes in that ball in the water, but as I was saying, today was a lazy day. So string cheese it was! I used string cheese from Cowpals, cuz the cows on the packaging looked so cute! I want to be their pal! jk~ -_-

I used 4 string cheese sticks (two for my sister and two for myself) and cut them into bite size bits. Hence the name Mozza BALLS. =)


I set up an assembly line of 2 tbsp flour, 1 egg beaten, and 1/2 cup breadcrumbs with 1 tbsp dried oregano. I really like the woodsy flavor oregano gives to foods. Also, I thought the oregano matched the herby marinara sauce. (Well, I used a store bought can of marinara sauce and I assumed they used herbs such as oregano in their sauce. But it's just an assumption, or as my PI would like to say "hypothesis"!)

Dredge your balls into flour, egg, breadcrumb mixture. In that order. Or else.


Line up your beautifully covered balls and freeze for about 15 minutes. I think freezing really makes the cheese absorb all the flavors and also they come out crispier when you fry. So, yes, please freeze them.


Time to fry! Pour in olive oil into your pan so that it comes up about 1/2 inch. I used olive oil because, to me, olive oil is synonymous with Italian food, but you can also use canola, grapeseed, or whatever oil you have on hand. Although, I don't think coconut oil is a good idea...

Make sure your oil is hot before placing the balls in. I don't have a oil temperature gauge, so I couldn't tell you how hot the oil should be but you should be able to see little bubbles in the oil and that's how you know. The balls should spend 1-2 minutes in the oil on each side.


When they are done, they should come out a perfect golden color with the cheese oozing from sides.


Enjoy these cheesy balls of perfection with whatever sauce you like!

goodbye!